Most Malaysian companies have high boardroom independence but there is much room for improvement in disclosure of corporate governance practices, Standard and Poor's said today.

The ratings agency said a study it conducted of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's top 50 companies in market capitalisation terms showed considerable variation in their disclosure practices.

The study was conducted jointly with the Corporate Governance Financial Reporting Center at the National University of Singapore to assess corporate governance disclosure practices based on annual reports.

S and P Governance Services managing director Calvin Wong said that on a scorecard with a maximum of 140 points, most of the companies were clustered between 45 and 75 points.

"Judging from scores, there seems to be much room for Malaysian companies to improve disclosures of their corporate governance practices," Wong said in a statement.

Independent board

The study named five companies - Malakoff Bhd., top bank Malayan Banking Bhd., Malaysia Mining Corp. Bhd., conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd. and Tanjong plc - as among top performers but said they still fell short of global best practices.

Among the five firms, only one had a board with at least a majority of independent directors but none had more than two-thirds. Only two provided the directors or board with independent access to management and disclosed this fact in the annual report.

Only three disclosed they evaluated the individual performance of board members but gave no details on the criteria used to assess a board member's performance, S and P said. - AFP